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Saturday, 12 November 2016

The Consolation of Seneca, by Antonia Senior

Seneca is having a moment. There are two excellent new biographies out about him:Dying every Day: Seneca at the
Court of Nero, by James Romm andSeneca, a Life, by Emily Wilson.The Senecans,by Peter Stothard, my old boss at The
Times[1], weaves the
tale of a sort of high-brow Senecan fan-club with the politics of Thatcher.

In Glasgow at half-term. I was buying a
copy of Seneca’s letters. I already own them, but this was a new edition with
such a beautiful binding, I could not resist. The lovely Waterstones bookseller
there said: “Seneca’s really big at the moment. He keeps cropping up. I should
read him.”

“You should!” I cried in a slightly
excessive squeal.

SENECA

We all should. Seneca is the antidote to
our liberal malaise. He gives a hope for living intelligently in a surreal
world. His is the intellectual rigour that could give bulk to all the
mindfulness crap that is ubiquitous and yet hollow. I started reading him for
research; I now read him for consolation, for joy and for pity.

I first came across him a few years ago,
when I was doing a MA in Ancient History at Birkbeck under the wonderful
Catherine Edwards. I’d been rather turned off the Stoics by the experience of
translating Cicero’s advocacy for A-level. Dear Lord.

But Seneca and I got on, pretty quickly.
(I also fell in love with his nephew Lucan; but his violent bitterness is a
story for another blog.)

Lucius Annaeus Seneca was an equestrian of
Spanish heritage. He was born around the same time as Christ – or a little
earlier. His father was a rhetorician, and Seneca and his three brothers were
immersed early in the Rome of letters and politics.

Seneca’s health was dreadful throughout
his life – and he spent some time convalescing in Egypt as a young man. He
returned to Rome and began to make connections in the court, becoming friends
particularly with the Emperor Caligula’s sisters Agrippina and Julia Livilla.
On the accession of Claudius, Seneca was charged with and adulterous affair
with Julia and exiled to Corsica.

He was recalled by Agrippina on her
marriage to Claudius and installed as the tutor to her son, Nero in AD 49.
Claudius’ death in AD meant that Seneca’s charge became the most important man
in the Western World. Yes, the source of all political power was a fat
megalomaniac with bad hair and an attraction to showbiz that terrified the
political elite: imagine that if you can people.

NERO: even scarier than The Donald

Seneca essentially believed that the
purpose of life is to become a sapiens,
or a wise man. The ideal wise Stoic is free, tranquil and happy at all times.
This is clearly hard to achieve – and Cicero particularly disagreed with the
notion that it is possible to divorce yourself from passions. Emily Wilson
argues that Seneca’s insistence that a wise life is possible marks the changing
times: “It was more important than ever to hang on to an ideal of tranquillity
in a world where it is so difficult to achieve.”

Perhaps this accounts for the surge in
Seneca’s popularity. In this post-truth politics world of Brexit and Trump, is it time to look for new mentors? Seneca is a very human sage. He was criticised for hypocrisy in his own life-time;
partly for his immense wealth and his stated indifference to it. But Seneca’s central
dilemma was also a very modern one. How does a virtuous soul approach the
exigencies of politics?

Epicureans, who were the
alternative school to the Stoics in Rome, believed
that the philosopher is obliged to withdraw from public life. That the
compromises demanded by politics are anathema to the philosophical soul. Their
beliefs demand silence; at most the benign chatter of one’s like-minded friends.

But not the Stoics. Their creed demanded that they
were bound to serve the common good. They were duty-bound to engage with power;
unless their lives were endangered by their service. But what if the retreat
from that power was where the danger lies? What if confronting tyranny, and
fleeing tyranny were both suicidal?

The way Tacitus tells the story, the early part of
Nero’s reign was a golden age – because Seneca was effectively running the
show. But the 17 year old Emperor grew up, began asserting himself, and side-lined
his erstwhile mentor. As Nero grew more difficult, Seneca sought to withdraw
from political life. He offered his entire fortune to Nero in return for a
retirement. But Nero knew that Seneca was the virtuous figleaf that his reign
demanded – and refused the request.

Their relationship became poisonous, until at last
Seneca became tainted by a conspiracy against the Emperor. He killed himself.
Suicide was the great refuge of the sapiens – it guaranteed freedom in the face
of tyranny.

I have paraphrased his life. I haven’t even touched on
his remarkable tragedies, which explore the darkness of human passions
unleashed. Nor his letters, with their sharp insights into daily life. We have
a dozen essays, more than 100 letters, nine tragedies and a satirical piece. A
treasure trove which keeps on giving. How to give a flavour in this very short
blog? Here are just a few of my favourite quotes from a writer famous for his
pithiness and paradoxes.

Summer has gone, but another year will
bring it again; winter lies low, but will be restored by its own proper months;
night has overwhelmed the sun, but day will soon rout the night again. The
wandering stars retrace their former courses; a part of the sky is rising
unceasingly, and a part is sinking.

Letter
36

What then is good? The knowledge of
things. What is evil? The lack of knowledge of things. Your wise man, who is
also a craftsman, will reject or choose in each case as it suits the occasion;
but he does not fear that which he rejects, nor does he admire that which he
chooses, if only he has a stout and unconquerable soul.

Letter
31

Kindly remember that he whom you call
your slave sprang from the same stock, is smiled upon by the same skies, and on
equal terms with yourself breathes, lives, and dies. It is just as possible for
you to see in him a free-born man as for him to see in you a slave…..

…“He is a slave.” His soul, however, may
be that of a freeman. “He is a slave.” But shall that stand in his way? Show me
a man who is not a slave; one is a slave to lust, another to greed, another to
ambition, and all men are slaves to fear. I will name you an ex-consul who is
slave to an old hag, a millionaire who is slave to a serving-maid; I will show
you youths of the noblest birth in serfdom to pantomime players! No servitude
is more disgraceful than that which is self-imposed.

Letter 47

@tonisenior

www.facebook.com/antoniaseniorbooks

[1] He
does not know he was my boss. I was a junior reporter writing about pensions.
He was editor. He was the Sun King; I was an ant. Everything I know about the
strange and wonderful world of Court politics comes from working in a
newspaper.

3 comments:

Having not read Seneca since high school (too young to comprehend the weight and wealth that was being offered), and now in my dotage, and with the new burden of current American politics and ongoing planetary distresses to deal with, I am grateful for this reintroduction. The complexities under which we all labor now deserve, and could profit by, the intelligence and striving of such a soul from the long past. Thank you. I will begin to reacquaint myself via a visit to my local library.

Please do! I think I am not a stoic - they have a slightly odd central belief in Providence. I lean to epicureanism. But there is so much in Seneca to admire, and to help us confront fear and anger. Sorely needed, I think?

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